In the age of generative AI and social media, disinformation is created and disseminated on a mass scale. The independence of the media and scientific institutions is under pressure. Knowledge that was once taken for granted is in decline. Gradually, citizens are losing the ability to form informed judgments based on scientific information—an essential prerequisite for the exercise of representative democracy.

The complexity of the mechanisms at play and the widespread confusion created by disinformation strategists are hindering the general public’s ability to fully understand these threats.

Through its Roundtable, the Association for Science and Democracy (AS+D), founded by Valentine Python, Julia Steinberger, and Irène Wettstein, aims to:

• shed light on the mechanisms through which denial, disinformation, and the distortion of language threaten the proper functioning of democracies

• identify the actors seeking to bring about the collapse of our democracies

• propose ways to resist these efforts

• contextualize and illustrate these issues within the Swiss context

For its first major event, co-organized with the Collective for Academic Freedom, Democracy, and Solidarity (CLADS, UNIL-EPFL), AS+D invites you to the University of Lausanne on Thursday, October 29, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Amphimax for the roundtable discussion “Science and Democracy: What Is At Stake?”, featuring the following participants:

• Solange Ghernaouti, Professor of Computer Science, Swiss Cybersecurity Advisory & Research Group, UNIL

• Martine Rebetez, Professor of Climate Science, UNINE

• Isabelle Moncada, journalist and producer of the health magazine 36.9°, RTS

Moderator: Romaine Jean, journalist, columnist, and consultant

Free event open to everyone; registration required; limited seating.